By Joseph Herff
After franchise tagging Allen Robinson, the Chicago Bears are $19.7 million over the projected cap space according to Over The Cap. The projected salary cap for 2021 is roughly $188 million on Over The Cap as well.
The Bears already freed up some cap space immediately by releasing nickel cornerback Buster Skrine and starting right tackle Bobby Massie. Both of these releases saved the Bears a bit of money, but not much, and additionally left a hole at a major position (right tackle). Alex Bars may be able to fill that hole, or they can fill it via the 2021 NFL draft as this tackle class is extremely deep.
Nickel cornerback should be fine as Duke Shelley showed promise and they can have Kindle Vildor and Tre Roberson compete with him for the starting job. This is another position they should be fine at but should address in the draft.
But at -$19.7 million over the cap, many think it is impossible for the Bears to make it work. The New Orleans Saints though year after year put themselves into a cap issue and get out of it. They truly are the masters at it as they were around $60 million over the cap this offseason and just franchise tagged Marcus Williams.
How do they do it? Plenty of different ways they do it and the Bears need to incorporate those same ideas this offseason. Pace needs to use his New Orleans connections and do the same thing here.
The Chicago Bears can open up more cap space with contract restructures
The biggest way the Saints open up money is through restructures. A contract restructure is not a pay cut as many think. Basically, a team restructures the contract by converting base salary and other bonuses to a signing bonus. The signing bonus is paid out in a lump sum and accounted for on the remaining years of the contract rather than the current season.
Essentially, this pushes money back and the Saints basically rely on the idea that each season the cap space is going to increase. This season caused them more trouble as the cap space actually decreased due to COVID. So, the Bears can do this with plenty of players. Here are some of the prime candidates to do it with:
Khalil Mack, OLB — $12.9 million
Kyle Fuller, CB — $9 million
Robert Quinn, OLB — $8.7 million
Eddie Jackson, S — $6.8 million
Charles Leno, OT — $6 million
Cody Whitehair, OG/C — $4.9 million
Eddie Goldman, DT — $3.2 million
Nick Foles, QB — $2 million
Danny Trevathan — $2.6 million
These obviously all won’t happen. These are just the prime candidates that would garner the Bears the most amount of cap space for the 2021 offseason. If the Bears potentially restructured every one of these players, the Bears would have $29 million in cap space for this offseason, plenty to add Russell Wilson and more talent as you can restructure Wilson as well.
It has already been reported that the Bears are going to probably restructure both Whitehair and Jackson.
Trades could free up cap space and gain draft picks for the Chicago Bears
The other big way to open up cap space is through trading a player away. This would open up even more holes for the Bears but could allow them to get more draft capital to fill more needs or even use that capital to trade for Russell Wilson.
There aren’t as many trade candidates for this offseason for the Bears, but a few would save them a lot of money. Here are some potential trade candidates.
Kyle Fuller, CB — $11 million
2021 First/Second-Round Pick
Allen Robinson, WR — $18 million
2021 First/Second-Round Pick
Akiem Hicks, DT — $10.5 million
2021 Third/Fifth-Round Pick
Nick Foles, QB — $1.3 million
2021 Fifth/Seventh-round pick
Again, this isn’t calling for all of these players to be traded. These are just candidates for the idea. Some players like Allen Robinson may not want to be here given his contract issues here and his constant complaining about the Bears and the franchise tag.
Additionally, some players like Hicks and Fuller could help win-now teams that need one more piece to help their team. Both of them still have high value as well despite them getting older.
If the Bears traded away these players, that would open up the Bears’ cap space to $21 million. See how well that works? It’s easy to manipulate the cap.
Some players could be cut as well to open up cap space
The Bears already got started on this by cutting Buster Skrine and Bobby Massie, but there are even more candidates the Bears can cut to open up more space. It won’t be easy, but the Bears can dump off some failed players while additionally getting bad players out. They likely will have to make some difficult cuts as well.
Charles Leno, OT — $6.2 million
Jimmy Graham, TE — $7 million
Anthony Miller, WR — $1.2 million
Joel Iyiegbuniwe, ILB — $920k
Javon Wims, WR — $920k
Repeating myself again, but I am not calling for all of these guys to be cut. Releasing some of these players though can open up more cap space and will allow the Bears to add more to their space by getting rid of issues within the locker room.
With both Skrine and Massie being cut, those were two of the prime cut candidates given their current playing states as they both were aging and struggled the last few seasons. Massie played solid last season but didn’t play much due to an injury.
What should the Chicago Bears do then?
Here should be the plan for the Bears to open up a great amount of cap space:
Restructures:
Khalil Mack, OLB — $12.9
Kyle Fuller, CB — $9 million
Robert Quinn, OLB — $8.7 million
Eddie Jackson, S — $6.8 million
Charles Leno, OT — $6 million
Cody Whitehair, OG/C — $4.9 million
Eddie Goldman, DT — $3.2 million
Total Cap Space: $26 million
Trades:
Allen Robinson, WR — $18 million
2021 First/Second Round Pick
Akiem Hicks, DT — $10.5 million
2021 Third/Fifth Round Pick
Total Cap Space: $54 million
Cuts:
Jimmy Graham, TE — $7 million
Bring him back cheap
Anthony Miller, WR — $1.2 million
Javon Wims, WR — $920k
Total Cap Space: $64 million
And just like that, I opened up $64 million in cap space while gaining ideally a first-round pick and fourth-round pick. I’d have the money to pay Kenny Golladay at a discounted rate of Allen Robinson. I then could trade for Russell Wilson and use the first-round gained from Robinson and restructure his deal.
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This could leave the Bears with potentially still plenty of picks to address slot wide receiver, defensive tackle, and right tackle while adding depth to other key positions like safety, cornerback, inside linebacker, and wide receiver.
All in all, don’t be worried about cap space. It isn’t ever something to be worried about as the Saints have shown that time and time again that you can dig out of the hole each year.